Monday October 24, 2022
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THE FORUM DAILY

Four Venezuelans became the first beneficiaries of the new private
sponsorship parole program <[link removed]> after
arriving via air travel in the United States on Saturday. Hundreds of
additional Venezuelans have been approved to book their flights under
the same program, Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS
<[link removed]>
reports. 

The arrival of the group this weekend shows a rapid process: The Biden
administration program officially launched the program last Tuesday.  

But the other side of the story is that Title 42 was expanded for
Venezuelans arriving at the border. At least 3,000 Venezuelans have been
expelled at the U.S. border during the first week of its implementation,
per Lizbeth Díaz and José Luis González of Reuters
<[link removed]>.  

"It's very concerning to see people who are outside the shelters,
there's no space," said Dana Graber Ladek, the Mexico chief of mission
for the United Nations. 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus told Jordan
Fabian and Ellen M. Gilmer of Bloomberg
<[link removed]>
that they are still evaluating this shift: "This policy is very new and
so to even look at what's happened in a week, we're not saying,
'OK, well, success, mission accomplished.' I think it's a starting
point." 

But how are we defining "success"? The tiny percentage of Venezuelan
migrants able to seek humanitarian parole pales in comparison with
thousands being denied their right to seek asylum. (Here's our deeper
dive
<[link removed]>.)  

The Los Angeles Daily News
<[link removed]>
editorial board writes, "It's a bad excuse to use [Title 42] to keep
out those escaping tyranny. ... Our great legacy of asylum is precisely
the mechanism that should be used for refugees fleeing a totalitarian
regime in the Americas."  

That's the bottom line even as Customs and Border Protection reported
final fiscal year 2022 border numbers on Friday. Migrant encounters
along the southern border totaled 2.7 million in the year that ended
Sept. 30, Luke Barr of ABC News
<[link removed]>
reports. As usual, my policy colleague Danilo Zak has important context
<[link removed]>: "[T]he data
does NOT show record levels of border arrivals or unauthorized entries.
That's because of high repeat crossing rates and low numbers of
'got-aways' compared to earlier years." 

One more quick border note: A group of Christian women is visiting the
border at El Paso, Texas, and Juárez, Mexico, tomorrow and Wednesday
with We Welcome <[link removed]>. Reporters, please
send inquiries my way. 

Welcome to Monday's edition of The Forum Daily. I'm Dan
Gordon, the Forum's strategic communications VP. If you have a story
to share from your own community, please send it to me at
[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>.   

**TPS FOR ETHIOPIANS** - Thousands of Ethiopians in the United States
now will be able to apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) because
of the ongoing war in their home country, reports Hamed Aleaziz of The
Los Angeles Times
<[link removed]>.
"The United States recognizes the ongoing armed conflict and the
extraordinary and temporary conditions engulfing Ethiopia, and DHS is
committed to providing temporary protection to those in need," Homeland
Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said in a statement
<[link removed]>.
The U.S. estimates that 26,700 Ethiopians currently in the U.S. could be
eligible for TPS's 18 months of protection. 

**A NEW LIFE **- Aziza Akbari, who recently resettled in Aurora,
Colorado, is among the tens of thousands of Afghans who were allowed
entry into the U.S. via humanitarian parole, per Alan Gionet of CBS
Colorado
<[link removed]>.
"Being a refugee is very hard," Akbari said of her 11 months in Pakistan
after she escaped Afghanistan. She had burned documents showing that she
had worked with foreigners and was an English teacher. "Now that I'm
here [in the U.S.], it's amazing; I'm happy being here," she added.
Without congressional action, namely the Afghan Adjustment Act
<[link removed]>,
evacuees such as Akbari have no certain future here. "They did their
part of the job, but now we didn't do our part of the job," Safi Rauf,
president of the Human First Coalition, said of people such as Akbari.
"It is a betrayal of the American promise, the American integrity." 

**LABOR SHORTAGE SOLUTIONS** - Immigration solutions for farmers and
farmworkers could solve labor challenges the agricultural sector in
North Carolina is facing, Pastor Ryan Sims writes in a column for the
Greensboro News & Record
<[link removed]>.
He points out that the number of migrant farmworkers in his state ranks
No. 6 nationwide, and that agriculture is a $10 billion industry in
North Carolina. "But there's more at stake than the economy," Sims
writes. "Immigrants are an integral part of our communities and our
churches ... Christians should feel compelled to advocate for the
inherent dignity of every human life, and this is just as true for
migrant farmworkers, who often face dangerous working conditions, abuse
and exploitation." 

A

**DAMARIS' STORY** - Just five years ago, Adamaris Lopez, senior
co-captain of the George Washington High cheer team in Philadelphia, was
fighting for her father not to be deported back to Mexico. For almost a
year, he lived inside a Philadelphia church for sanctuary, report
Kristen A. Graham and Jeff Gammage of The Philadelphia Inquirer
<[link removed]>. As
the oldest child and most proficient English speaker, Lopez "was doing
protests left and right," helping out at home, and balancing school and
cheer. Her father was later granted a U visa. "They're the epitome of
a Philadelphia story," said Erika Almirón, a rights-group consultant
who worked closely with the family. In January, Lopez and her team are
heading to a national competition in Dallas thanks to Lopez's efforts
to fundraise and to Philadelphians who donated more than $30,000.

Thanks for reading, 

Dan 

**P.S** - For many young Latinos, their immigrant parents'
resilience is a motivator to seek higher education, Scarlett
Lopez-Rodriguez, a high school junior, reports for The Mercury News
<[link removed]>
as part of the journalism training program Mosaic Vision. The love in
these stories shines through. 

 

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